An alternating-current surface discharge type plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as “PDP”) typical as an alternating-current (AC) type plasma display panel has the following configuration. The configuration has a front substrate formed of a glass substrate that performs surface discharge and is formed by arranging scan electrodes and sustain electrodes, and a back substrate formed of a glass substrate having data electrodes. The front substrate and the back substrate are arranged so as to face each other in parallel so that the scan electrodes and sustain electrodes form a matrix in combination with the data electrodes and a discharge space is formed in a clearance. The outer peripheries of the front substrate and back substrate are sealed by a sealant such as glass frit. Discharge cells partitioned by barrier ribs are disposed between the substrates, and phosphor layers are formed in cell spaces between the barrier ribs. The PDP having such a configuration generates an ultraviolet ray with gas discharge, and emits light by exciting phosphor of each color with the ultraviolet ray, thereby performing color display.
The PDP divides one field time period into a plurality of subfields, and is driven by a combination of the subfields at which light is emitted, thereby performing gradation display. Each subfield is formed of an initialization time period, an addressing time period, and a sustaining time period. For displaying image data, different signal waveforms are applied to each electrode in the initialization time period, the addressing time period, and the sustaining time period, respectively.
In the initialization time period, for example, positive pulse voltage is applied to all scan electrodes, and a required wall charge is accumulated on a protective film and the phosphor layer. The protective film is disposed on a dielectric layer for covering the scan electrodes and the sustain electrodes.
In the addressing time period, negative scan pulses are sequentially applied to all scan electrodes to perform scan. When the positive data pulses are applied to the data electrodes during scan of the scan electrodes in a case having display data, discharge occurs between the scan electrodes and the data electrodes, and a wall charge is formed on the protective film on the scan electrodes.
In the subsequent sustaining time period, a voltage sufficient for keeping the discharge between the scan electrodes and the sustain electrodes is applied for a certain period. Thus, discharge plasma is generated between the scan electrodes and the sustain electrodes, and the phosphor layer is excited to emit light for a certain period. In the discharge space where the data pulse is not applied in the addressing time period, the discharge does not occur and excitation or light emission does not occur in the phosphor layer.
Such a PDP has a problem where a long delay occurs in the discharge in the addressing time period and the addressing operation becomes unstable, or a problem where the addressing time is set to be long for perfectly performing the addressing operation and the time required for the addressing time period excessively increases. For handling these problems, PDPs where an auxiliary discharge electrode is disposed on the front substrate and a priming discharge caused by the in-plane auxiliary discharge on the front substrate side reduces the discharge delay, and driving methods of the PDPs are disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2001-195990 and Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-297091, for example.
When the definition is improved and the number of lines is increased in these PDPs, however, the time required for the addressing time period further increases, hence the time required for the sustaining time period must be decreased, and the luminance is hardly secured at high definition, disadvantageously. Also when xenon (Xe) partial pressure is increased for achieving high luminance and high efficiency, the discharge starting voltage increases, the discharge delay increases, and the addressing characteristic degrades, disadvantageously. The addressing characteristic is largely affected by the process, decease of the discharge delay in addressing and reduction of the addressing time are required.
There are the following problems associated with the requirement. In other words, the conventional PDP that performs the priming discharge in the front substrate cannot sufficiently reduce the discharge delay in addressing, has a small operation margin in the auxiliary discharge, or causes false discharge to destabilize the operation, disadvantageously. The auxiliary discharge is formed in the plane of the front substrate, so that priming particles more than required for priming are supplied to an adjacent discharge cell, and crosstalk occurs.
The present invention addresses the above-mentioned problems, and provides a PDP that can reduce the discharge delay in addressing and stabilize the discharge characteristic, and has high reliability.